Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-07-01

spirit of the country, by forcing the pas
sage OF the nrtional civil service act in
1888, ana thereby forbidding political as
sessments, and taking more than $4,000
places out of party patronage, condemned,
and, to considerable extent, arrested the
worst party abuses. That act am glad
to say, was supported by the senators and
members from Vermont. That same
| spirit is now making political science, as
| taught In some of our foremost UNIVERSE
ties and colleges, something more than
| political economy, and promises to make
1t study which will, before long include
all the great questions of principle which
are at the basis of all true party action
and all pure administration. We MAY
reasonably hope, think, that between the
practical example of that law, greatly ex-
tended, as it should he, in the range of
its enforcement. and the influence of such
teaching, the time is not remote when we
shall have parties fifty organized and
kept within their true sphere of useful
ness.
What, then is a political party, ~ dis
tinguished from faction a partisan ma
chine, or conspiracy for gettidg office
and distributing patronage
No man has ever lived more competent
to tell us than Edmund Burke. "a party"
says Mr. Burke. 'is a body of men united
for promoting, by their joint endeavors,
the national interests, upon particular
| principle, in which they are all agreed"
Speaker Carlisle, one of the most admir-
able statesmen in Congress, declared in a
late speech at Cincinnati, that "a political
party can be of no use in any country, I'M
less it has principles, and is ready to stake
even its existence upon them
A party then, repeat, is not an end in
itself but a mere agency for serving the
nation. Its supreme duty is not to man
age elections or to dispense patronage,
but to stand by its principles. 1t has no
right to promote interests of its own, as
distinct from those of the people Its
great function is to unite and make effec-
tive the opinions and policy of its adher-
ents, by giving them concentrated DOW
erful expression in aid of the general wei
fare. A party has no right to use its
power either to dictate other terms OF
mem bershlp than adhesion to its own
principles, or to use official authority or
the time of public officers in aid of its
own domination.
The gates and opportunities of true
party, therefore, must always be open to
| all those who adhere to its principles. On
these conditions alone can a party be
useful, or have even a right to exist. No
action on its part can be justified which
does not involve its principles or cannot
be shown to promote the general well
fare.
To convert party into partisan club,
or series of such clubs, with tests of mem
bership other than its essential principles
with a discipline which suppresses a
ton, which eXacts pledges to vote for all
its nominees, or to obey all orders of its
committees or leaders, with rules which
threaten expulsion for every breach of
this discipline, as has been more and more
the tendency of late in both parties es
pecially in the large cities-all this is TO
disregard the very nature of a party, and
to pervert its authority for despotic and
degrading purposes. A body thus organ
lied speedily ceases to be true party,
Inevitably, it loses faith not only in prin
ciples but in the conscience and patro-
tiSm OF the people. 1t puts Its trust in
brilliant leadership, in adroit manipula-
ton, in Marcy's theory of patronage,
which was as savage of that of pirates. in
Aaron Burr's system of organization,
which was as despotic as that of an army
The most direct and vigorous efforts OF
such party are to control the primary
meetings. to manage conventions, to fill
the public places with its most servceable
miniOns, to buy the public press, to frown
down every man who dares to criticise its
faults or to appeal to sound principles and
public duty. such pretended party is
always seeking to capture the govern
ment rather than to serve 1t.
| Its literature is devoted in about equal
parts to prasing itself and traducln4 its
opponents. Its practice, in language OF
WebSterS eulogy upon Washington,
strongly tends to make government itself
nothing but organized party"-and that
party a corrupt, constituencies despOtiSm
over the whole world of politics. from the
humblest township to the national CAPT
tai 1t is disastrous alike TO purity in adj
miniStratlOn, to stateSmaulike leadership,
to all caudor and justice in politics. IL
degrades official life and the very name OF
politics in the eyes Of the people. 1t tells
us why so many of the most ACTIVE parti-
sans in both parties alike, especil V in
great cities, have little stake in goot gov
eminent, little character, little regard for
the higher public opinion, and little or no
business beyond that of politics, aud yet
, prosper. Does it not hint to us why the
rule of parties is generally so short lived !?
If not, then what is the explanation
We nave been exhibiting before the
world as the Saturday RcUiclc has aunt
ingly declared, the curious spectaC.e of
being the nation which is at once the
best satisfied with its form of government
aud most disgusted with its admnistra-
ton and its party politics. The best minds
of the country have long felt that our
party management is unworthy of our
constitution and our citizenship, and that
our abuses have their source largely in
our parties.
1t is this conviction which Is now caus-
ing our thoughtful young men to study,
and our colleges to expound political
problems as never before; which has ena-
bled a distinguished senator to win ap-
plause for himself and for Vermont by
refusing to approve the folly of one par
ty, and President Cleveland to win the
gratitude of the best adherents of both
parties, by wthstandng, in the large
way that ne has withstood the partisan
greed of the other party.
1t is this degrading party system which
has, am persuaded, been in large mea
sure the cause of the diminishing proper
ton, since Jackson's administration, as
compared with former years, of college
bred men to be found in official life, and
of college students compared with the
whole population.
Thirty ont of the So signers Of the Decla-
ration of Independence, and Is out of the
20 members of the first Senate were col
lege graduates but only 33 out of the -
senators, and still less ratio of the mem
! bers of the House were such graduates in
1852. From Massachusetts, one of the
I States where parties nave been least
despotic, there We're, in 1852, : such grad
yates among its II members of Congress .
!, while from New YORK, where parties have
been most despotic, there were only Z
.st,p